Association Table Mapping pattern

Description:

The Association Table Mapping design pattern is used to manage many-to-many relationships between objects by using an intermediary table (association table) in the database. This pattern is particularly useful when an application requires handling complex relationships where each object can have multiple associations with objects of another type.

Main elements of the pattern:

• Entities: These are the objects that have a many-to-many relationship.
• Association Table: A table that holds the foreign keys referencing the primary keys of the associated tables.
• Mappings: The process of defining how the objects are related through the association table.
• Database Operations: CRUD operations need to account for the intermediary table to properly maintain the relationships.

References:

• Association Table Mapping - Martin Fowler
• Project Contribution Guidelines

Acceptance Criteria:

1. Create an association table to manage many-to-many relationships between two entities.
2. Implement CRUD operations ensuring the association table is appropriately updated.
3. Provide unit tests demonstrating the correct implementation and functionality of the Association Table Mapping pattern.

No source files or entry points are named. Review existing design-pattern implementations and their test organization first, then identify where a new Association Table Mapping example belongs. Done means the pattern supports the described many-to-many CRUD behavior and includes unit tests demonstrating it.